Blog 3 (doorkeeper shmorkeeper)

It seems the countryman is both a representative of a cultural "subject" and our "self". The established consequences of the law are ever present to all it's subjects, agreed to by the majority and it's details are available to any countryman willing to do the work of searching them out. Maybe the countryman in the story was unwilling to enter the door when the guard stood aside because of the imagined consequences that he's warned about, not ever seeing for himself what would happen. 

The countryman gives his possessions, goals of existence deemed valuable in his culture, in order to appease the guard and assure his presumed future admittance to the law. This establishes yet another reason to live, something to hope for, dream about, even imagining the punishment and disgrace of disobeying the the status quo and our conscience and yet still feeling like he's retaining his freewill and uniqueness. 

I think Kafka is suggesting that we cannot escape how we are shaped by culture and deep down don't want to for fear of losing our purpose.